A fun idea for the kiddos. Create a miniature village in the garden. It beats "FarmVille" any day ..
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Lasagna Gardening
No-Till, No-Dig Gardening
► http://bit.ly/RjUz9w
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The Salad Bar
EscarGROW
Indoor Planter
Remember to use 2 layers of plastic and plenty of tape so it does not leak.
Pallet gardening
Aquaponics
► www.growtest.org/2012/12/15/backyard-aquaponics-diy-system/
A sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals. The term aquaponics is a portmanteau of the terms aquaculture and hydroponic.
High resolution image: http://bit.ly/SiPxz9
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How to build a Global Bucket Style self watering container:
http://youtu.be/B3ZcxKrmx0w
Keyhole Garden Tutorial in .pdf format: http://bit.ly/RVF0pi
Daniel's homegrown shiitake mushrooms underneath avocado and jabuticaba trees
How to Grow Shiitake Mushrooms at Home:
www.growtest.org/2012/12/17/how-to-grow-shiitake-mushrooms-at-home/
Woven planter
Glass bottle planter
Raised beds via Access to the Garden
Beneficial garden ladybugs for controlling pests in your garden are the most popular and widely used beneficial insects for commercial and home use. Ladybugs are capable of consuming up to 60 aphids per day but will also eat a variety of other insects and larvae including scales, mealy bugs, leaf hoppers, mites, and various types of soft-bodied insects. Ladybugs, also called lady beetles or ladybird beetles, are a very beneficial group of insects. Ladybugs are natural enemies of many insect pests and it has been demonstrated that a single ladybug may consume as many as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. Ladybug adults have a very characteristic convex, hemispherical to oval body shape. The head is covered by a hood called the pronotum. Many species of Ladybugs are present in North America and they are common in most habitats across the commonwealth. They may be white, yellow, pink, orange, red or black, and usually have spots.
Ladybugs are among the most familiar beetles, easily recognized by their round, often spotted bodies, less than 1/16-3/8" long. Most are shiny red, orange, or yellow with black markings, or black with red or yellow markings. Both adults and larvae are predators, mostly of aphids. They are common on plants and often over-winter as adults in large swarms under fallen leaves or bark. In the West huge swarms of Ladybugs fly into mountain canyons, over-winter under leaves, and return to the valley in the spring. If food supply is good there are many generations a year.In fact, this is a type of warning coloration to other animals that may try to eat lady beetles. Like many of other brightly-colored insects, ladybugs are distasteful to predators. When disturbed, they may secrete an odorous, distasteful fluid out of their joints to discourage enemies. Did you ever see a little red and black beetle crawling along your window sill? It was probably a Lady beetle or just Ladybug as most people call them. Most species of Ladybugs are among our most beneficial insects as they consume huge numbers of plant
Crop rotation
Great idea for apartment dwellers
Bags of lettuce
Sweet potatoes
Do it yourself
Hydroponic system
Growing lettuce in bamboo
How to build grazing frames for your backyard chickens
Allowing your chickens to graze on fresh grass is a good thing — not just for them, but for you as well. The nutrients in green vegetation enhances the quality of their eggs and meat. And since fresh greens can make up about 20-30% of a chicken’s diet, providing them for your chickens can save you on feed costs.
But keeping your chickens supplied with fresh greens can be a challenge. When chickens have plenty of room to roam, they will graze a little off the top, then move on. When forage space is limited, however, as in a small urban or suburban backyard, chickens will continue to graze and scratch in the same spot until the vegetation is torn down to the roots.
An easy solution? Grazing frames!
Continue reading: http://bit.ly/UO8hEW
More aeroponic potatoes
How to build an aeroponics system:
►www.growtest.org/2013/01/06/hydroponics-aeroponics-system-step-by-step/
Re-purposed cd case mini-greenhouse
Citrus rind planter
Eggshell seed starter
Grow some
Austin Schull's Migratory Greenhouse
City Farming Plant Modules
The plant modules consist of soil, which is wrapped up in semitransparent, semi-permeable fiber cloth made into flexible forms. Water is introduced into every module by hoses that can be connected to drain pipes on buildings or to other water sources. The parts of the hoses that are inside the modules are perforated, which allows the water to seep out into the soil. Rainwater will also penetrate the fiber cloth, which will retain moisture while allowing excess water to escape. http://bit.ly/REz6f9
┊┊GROWtest.org┊┊www.GROWtest.org┊┊
CD holder mini-greenhouse
Bucket planter tower
Container cabbage
Re-purposed pallet fence
How to build an inexpensive hoop-house: http://bit.ly/UUYcFl
Straw Bale Gardening: Start to Finish
► www.growtest.org/2013/01/12/straw-bale-gardening-start-to-finish/
“From the garden, and the kitchen, and the table, you learn empathy—from each other and for all creation; and you learn patience and self-discipline. A curriculum that teaches these lessons gives children an orientation to the future—it can give them hope.” -Alice Louise Waters
Grow foods to please your palate -Kitsap Sun
Though my dad was emphatically egalitarian when it came to his friends, he was princely when it came to his palate.
In the household of my childhood, store-bought beans and tomatoes were anathema, high-bush, cultivated blueberries infinitely inferior to the low-bush wild ones that grew on New England hillsides. And while sharp cheddar from Herkimer, New York was a marvel, the mild stuff sold in the grocery stores was a disgrace.
That appreciation for fine fare, or if you prefer, food snobbery, got passed along to me. When I asked myself years ago why I spent so much time gardening, the answer was simple: to enjoy the most flavorful fruit and vegetables that could be grown here.
Communing with nature, eating food grown with a minimum of pesticides, saving money, exercising, and escaping other obligations were all secondary reasons.
You won't get any argument from me if you hold that almost any freshly picked vegetable or fruit from your own garden or orchard will trump its counterpart from a supermarket.
However, let me suggest five crops that double-trump the competition.
Pole Beans: Pole beans have always seemed to me to be sweeter and more flavorful than bush beans. For years, we grew Kentucky Wonder and considered it the paragon of snap beans. Then our son begged to differ.
He grew a Romano (flat podded) variety called Musica, which he insisted was the best bean. Period! once in a while your kids are right.
Continue reading: http://bit.ly/11tCPjT
Underground Greenhouse manual:
► www.growtest.org/underground-greenhouse-manual
Vertical pallet planter
www.growtest.org/bumper-sticker
Hanging coconut planter
Growing Shiitake Mushrooms is Easier Than You Think
Did you know that shiitakes are easy to grow in the home garden? Well they are and they only require a few items beyond the spawn (seeds). But before you jump into the fungus business, there are a few things you will need to know.
1. Shiitakes will produce 6 to 18 months after inoculation and will continue to produce for four to six years.
2. Any hardwood will work. This includes chestnut, sugar maple, beech, alder, and gum but there favorite is oak. When harvesting the wood, one will need to cut branches and/or trees that are disease free and six to eight inches in diameter. To make handling the logs easier, keep the length of the logs between four to six feet. Timing of the wood harvest is also important. only cut the wood after the leaves have fallen in the fall and before the tree begins to bud out in the spring.
once you have your wood source and it is cut, it is time to order your spawn (seed). Shiitakes have three strains that are weather based. These are the cold weather, warm weather, and wide range. Your spawn supplier can help you pick the appropriate strain for your area.
When your spawn arrives, it will be little dowels that are impregnated with the shiitake spawn. Prior to inoculating your logs, they will need to be refrigerated for 24 hours.
Continue reading: http://bit.ly/SjQqq1
Grow Food, Not Lawns stickers are available here: www.growtest.org/bumper-sticker
http://growtest.org/docs/edible-city-grow-the-revolution/
Gilh's planters
Robert's small space container gardening using double stacked Rubbermaid containers. The inner container is one size down from the outer container. Drain holes drilled in the bottom of the inner container and one overflow hole drilled in the side of the outer container (a reservoir of water is maintained in the outer container without saturating the potting soil).
Small space, big crop
Tips for Starting an Apartment Garden
Whether you’ve got a certified green thumb and are lamenting your move to a yard-less apartment or you’re a longtime apartment dweller looking for a nature-friendly hobby, apartment gardening can be a rewarding way to spend some time, decorate your home, and maybe even grow something edible. This article shares a few tips for getting an apartment garden started.
Location is a primary concern for an apartment garden. Perhaps you have a small—or, if you’re lucky, medium-sized—patio or balcony. If so, that’s a great place to put some pots. Getting down and dirty won’t be as much of a problem outside, and the plants will also be able to absorb more sunlight. If you don’t have any outdoor space to speak of, putting some plants by your windows or growing highly shade-tolerant varieties are also good options.
The aesthetic
Just because you don’t have a garden plot to plant in doesn’t mean you can’t grow something beautiful or beneficial. Container gardening presents many options for growing a variety of plants, from asparagus to zinnias. It’s also a great opportunity to be creative. Almost anything can serve as a receptacle for soil with a modification or two. From overturned football helmets to watering cans to old boots, you can create a patio- or window-full of eclectic containers holding exciting plants. Even if you’re just using plain ol’ terra cotta pots, consider painting them in interesting ways to help liven up your balcony. Drainage holes are the main necessity for any container being used for plants. If you can’t or don’t want to put holes in a particular pot, think about how to fit a smaller container already equipped with drainage holes inside the pot in question. This can be a good way to hide the not-so-pretty plastic containers you might buy your plants in. You may have to empty the larger containers of water and clean them every so often, but it’s a small price to pay for having better-looking pots.
Consider style
And much as you planned a decora
Herb spiral
Building a spiral garden
Another spiral
Newspaper, cardboard tube and a clementine box
Lettuce wall at Qadir Bakhsh Farms
Raised bed
Bamboo riser OR Grow your own planter
Herb spirals work great for people with limited space
Plant arid plants on top and moisture-loving plants at the bottom
Coconut shell planters
**Remember to drill holes in the bottom for drainage
Urban garden
Two trellises
Bamboo planters upstairs
Straw bale gardening
http://growtest.org/2013/01/12/straw-bale-gardening-start-to-finish/
Vertical gardening
Consider building a teepee for your beans and peas to climb
Sack of potatoes
Eggshells are great for starting seeds
Hugelkultur herb spiral
Hugelkultur is wood buried in soil. As the years pass, the wood rots and acts like a sponge, becoming a source of water and nutrients for plants.
Container gardening is a good option for folks with limited space
Stones painted to look like berries will keep the birds out of your berry patch. After pecking a few of the hard painted stones, the bird will assume that all of the berries in the patch are hard as a rock and will seek its food elsewhere. www.growtest.org/bumper-sticker
Hanging re-purposed picture frame herb drying rack
The glass has been replaced with metal screens
How to build a keyhole garden: http://growtest.org/2012/11/19/keyhole-garden/
Backyard organic hydroponics
In organic hydroponics, organic fertilizer is degraded into inorganic nutrients by microorganisms in the hydroponic solution via ammonification and nitrification. The microorganisms are cultured with a method of multiple parallel mineralization. The culture solution can be used as the hydroponic solution.
You can grow your own mushrooms. Here's how: http://bit.ly/YIuwKk
Space savers
Trellis ideas
~More ideas: http://on.fb.me/YYjKFk
The beginnings of a bean teepee
Hanging Kokedama Plant
Gutter garden
► www.GROWtest.org/bumper-sticker
A-frame gutter garden
► www.GROWtest.org/bumper-sticker
Hanging
Log planter
Marina's onions
Hanging bird bath
Melissa's shoe-organizer irrigated hanging herb garden is ready for mulch & plants
Growing rose cuttings with potatoes: http://bit.ly/103sYNS
Grow wall
How to re-grow romaine lettuce hearts ► http://bit.ly/Zvrrhb
Halena's mandala garden
Eggshell starters via Landwerkstatt & Genusslabor
Ideas
A fun idea for the kiddos. Create a miniature village in the garden. It beats "FarmVille" any day ..
